Chapter 28
During the weekend, I managed to sneak out and go shopping for dresses with my friends. My parents weren’t home and wouldn’t be home until later so Lynn came and picked me up with the others. We headed to the mall.
As I sat on an ottoman in a dress shop, I began to think that I would rather be at home than watching my friends get dresses for a dance I wasn’t going to. My mood had taken a turn for the worst after everything that’s been going on.
“Come on Callan. You should try this on.” Hailey held up a dress and I looked at it. It was a pretty pale blue color, but what was the point. I wasn’t going.
“It would look great on you,” Lynn said, agreeing with Hailey.
“No it wouldn’t.” I looked away from the dress and stared at nothing.
“You think she’s acting depressed because of the A word?” Hailey whispered to Anna.
“Probably.” The A word? Did they think I was dumb enough to not know who they were talking about?
“I’m not like this because of Aiden, Hailey.” I was depressed because of Carrie, but the fact that Aiden still wasn’t around was bothering me. “I just don’t like the dress.” I said.
“I’m not really liking any of the dresses here either. Should we go to a different shop?” Kim suggested.
They all shrugged and we ended up leaving that shop empty handed. Walking through the mall, we headed towards another shop. It was the weekend and a lot of people from school came to hang out at the mall so I shouldn’t have been caught off guard by what happened next, but I was.
As soon as we rounded a corner, Mark and his ex-girlfriend, or current girlfriend now, were walking hand in hand. Recently, Mark and Shelly completely rekindled their relationship. I personally thought Shelly didn’t deserve Mark. Mark caught my eye and a flash of pain flickered across his eyes before they hardened towards me. He noticeably squeezed Shelly’s hand and she finally seemed to notice that we were headed towards them.
Mark appeared as if he wanted to avoid conflict, yet Shelly stopped and waited for our approach, whispering something to Mark in his ear.
My friends noticed them, but I was sure they didn’t expect Shelly to stop. I was asked by Kim if I wanted to just ignore them, but I didn’t. I thought that maybe if I spoke to Mark, we could be on better terms and maybe even friends.
When we reached them, I gave Mark a small smile, trying to be friendly with him. “Hi Mark, Hi Shelly.” I glossed over her name. She was inconsequential to me. Mark, however, I still liked and I wanted to know if he had forgiven me so we could move past our failed relationship.
“Can I talk to you Mark?”
“Anything you have to say to me, you can say right here.” I didn’t like how cold he sounded. I also didn’t like Shelly’s smug face. Mark’s face was contorted into a glare, making me uneasy about talking to him at all, but I still wanted everything to be fine between us.
“I just want to know if we could ever be friends again.” I said, hesitantly. He paused for a moment and as I waited for his reaction, my stomach dipped as his expression hardened even further. Hate was the emotion I saw in his eyes. I recognized it completely now. And by the look of hatred, I realized that it was a mistake to talk to him at all. I should’ve just ignored him.
He scoffed. “We were never friends. Just admit that you were using me and that the whole relationship was just another one of your flings. It meant nothing to you. You’re a bitch Callan. You always have been.”
The way he spoke to me was like a knife in the gut. I wasn’t prepared for Mark to react the way he just did. It hurt. The last thing I expected was for him to feel as strongly as he did about the entire situation. “It did mean something.” I said quietly, looking at my feet. I really did like him and I didn’t understand why he didn’t believe me.
“Stop lying. I bet you did sleep with Aiden while we were together. You’re a fucking whore and you always will be. You play with people and one day you’ll get what’s coming to you.” He dragged Shelly away with him and I didn’t bother to look at her triumphant face as they walked away together.
That was another knife in my gut. He called me a whore, a ‘fucking whore’ to be exact. I didn’t know he had been that hurt. I thought he understood why I couldn’t return his feelings. And I never expected him to treat me with such animosity. He treated me like every other girl did; only it felt worse because I actually cared about him. He hated me now and it was my entire fault. What was wrong with me?
My eyes were beginning to water.
“Callie, are you okay?” I heard Hailey ask in a gentle voice that I didn’t deserve from her.
“I’m fine.” I pushed back the tears.
“Are you sure?” Lynn asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“I’m really fine.” I insisted. Neither Hailey nor Lynn looked as if they believed me. I guessed that for once, my emotions were written across my face.
“He was being a total dick just now.” Anna even chipped in as she stood off to the side. Kim stood next to her. I looked over at her and she was looking away, but I smiled at her small rare gesture of sympathy.
“You should ignore him.” Kim said.
I welcomed their sympathy, but I wasn’t used to it. Usually I wasn’t the one who needed sympathy. Usually, I was a lot more composed. But Mark’s newfound hate for me really bothered me. I already knew this was what caring about a guy did to you, but it had been a long while since I experienced it.
“Should we shop away the pain?” Hailey asked.
I looked at the bright cheery face she had put on for my sake and suddenly Mark seemed right. I was a fucking whore for all the lying I was doing to my friends, but I didn’t want to lose them because I knew that if they knew what I had done, they would abandon me. Now, I wanted to cry all over again, but I didn’t. Pushing a smile onto my face, I nodded.
“Yeah.” I said and we continued across the mall.
When we got to the next store we searched around for dresses. I was mainly just skimming over them, not really in the mood to shop.
“Hey, Callan. I think you should try this one on.” Lynn said, handing me a dark violet halter dress. When I just stared at it, she began dragging me to the dressing room and shoved me in with the dress.
Even though I was pointless, I put the dress on. It was a short muted red baby doll dress with white accents. The back was open and it had a plunging neckline. The more I looked at myself in the mirror, the more I started to like it.
“Callan, let us see.” I heard Lynn call out.
I walked out of the dressing room and she examined the dress. “I think you should get it.”
“It looks good.” Anna said.
“But I’m not even going to the dance.”
“So what?”
“Maybe your parents will change their minds or you could just sneak out.” Kim said. “Still, you should have a dress just in case.”
“Maybe you’re right.” I said, agreeing with Kim.
“She is right.” Hailey said.
So I bought the dress. The Hailey and Anna found dresses as well. Only Kim and Lynn still needed a dress so we decided to head to another shop. On the way, I heard my phone buzz and paused to pull it out.
It was Aiden and he was telling me to turn around. I whipped my head to the side, and there he was, in the distance, leaning up against a wall casually. He raised his hand in greeting when he saw me looking at him. The emotions that went through me were a mixture of things, but generally, I was happy to see him.
I turned and looked back at my friends who were still walking. “Guys, I need to go use the bathroom. I’ll meet you later.” They acknowledged my excuse and kept walking.
Repressing the desire to run to him, I coolly walked over to where he was standing. His hair was a mess and his eyes were staring me down with a familiar smirk. He looked amazing as usual and it took everything in me not to run over and jump him in the middle of the mall. My face also became a mask of annoyance because, well, I was annoyed with him for leaving like he did. I also didn’t want to seem as desperate for him as I was.
“Hey,” Aiden said. His voice sent a wave of desire through me.
“Hi,” I responded, looking away. “How’d you know I was at the mall?”
“Lucky guess.” My gaze met his and my eyes narrowed. “Did you miss me?” He paused. A hand went to my waist, pulling me closer to him. “Never mind. I already know the answer to that question.” Aiden brought his lips closer with the intention of kissing me, but I turned away so they landed on my cheek.
“Not here, Aiden.” He could wait a little longer.
“Are you mad at me?” He asked, noticing my attitude.
“I’m not mad.” I tried to reassure him with a smile that was slightly tense.
He noticed and his hands started rubbing circles into my side with the hand around my waist. “Then relax. You seem a little out of it.” My stomach clenched in usual anticipation at his touch. Instead of relaxing, I was getting worked up and hot.
I breathed a sigh.
He moved away and took my hand in his warm one. A smirk was on his face. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I just need to tell the others that I’m leaving.” I sent a text message to Lynn, telling her that I was leaving and I didn’t need a ride. Then I followed Aiden through the mall to the exit. He had my hand the entire time we walked together until we reached the car. We didn’t talk. There was too much tension between us to just talk.
When we reached his car, to my surprise, he pushed me against it and kissed me hard.
My bag had fallen out of my hand as I returned his frantic kisses. I fisted his shirt, wanting him closer to me, but I pushed him back.
“Aiden, calm down. Can we get to a bed first?”
His eyes were hooded. “What do we need a bed for?” He pressed himself against me. What did we need a bed for? As he started to kiss me again, I forgot. His kisses were always hot and passionate, making me forget all my thoughts so all that was left were my own feelings of raw lust and passion that could only be satiated by him.
We ended up in the backseat of his truck going at each other like rabbits. It was like we were both suffering from withdrawal from each other. Everything was frantic and quick, as if there wasn’t enough time. In moments we were both half naked and going through the motions. It was routine. One would think routine was boring, but with Aiden, every time was another high that was just as good, if not better, than the last. He would never get old.
“That was rather quick.” I said, smiling as he laid his head on my chest.
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t enjoy it.”
“I never said I didn’t.” We laid there in silence across the cramped back seat of his car for a few moments. Our position was extremely awkward with him in between my spread legs. One was on the seat and the other was hanging off. He was in between them with one of his own legs hanging off the seat. He up righted himself to a sitting position and I did the same, sprawling my legs across his lap.
“So did anything interesting happen while I was away?”
“First of all, where were you?” I was beyond curious.
“Visiting an uncle.” He said.
“Everything all right?”
“Everything is fine. What about you?”
My face fell. “Not so great.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I want to know what’s up.”
“I’m grounded Aiden.”
“What?” He sounded surprised.
“I’m grounded.” I repeated for him. “I’m only here because my parents aren’t home and don’t know that I’m here.”
“What the hell did you do?”
“I was caught having sex.”
He raised an eyebrow. “With who?”
“No one.”
“So you were caught masturbating?” A slow grin appeared on Aiden’s face.
“No, I just don’t want to talk about who it was because I don’t want it to get out. It was a onetime thing and I hate him. I literally want to punch his face a few times.”
“Should I punch him for you?”
“No.”
“I want to know who could get you this angry.”
“Other than you, very few people.”
“How do I get you angry?” He sounded like he actually didn’t know that he could be a jerk sometimes.
“You think you’re entitled to me. For you, I’m like some commodity that you can take advantage of at any time.”
“I don’t think of you like that.” Aiden said.
“You don’t know that you think of me like that.” I explained to him.
“You have no idea what I think.”
“What do you think?” I was genuinely curious now.
He leaned over and planted another kiss on my lips out of the blue.
A smile automatically came to my face. “What was that?”
“What was what?” He smiled back at me.
Then I caught a glimpse of the time on the dashboard out of the corner of my eye. “Aiden, I need to get home.” It was a few minutes after four and my parents would be home by five. I was not trying to get in any more trouble with them.
“I was hoping you would spend the night at my place.” He picked his shirt up off the floor and put it back on.
I sighed. “I can’t.”
“You could. You’re just afraid to be a bad girl because you got caught once already.”
“Are you trying to provoke me? Because it’s not working.”
“Fine, I’ll take you home.” He zipped up his pants and opened the door to the backseat. In a second he was in the front. I was still busy in the back, getting dressed and when I was done, I moved up front with him.
He drove me back to my house and stopped in front of it. For some reason, Ethan chose that time to come home as well and I watched as he got out of his car. Aiden decided to say something to him, to my dismay.
He rolled down the window and I frowned at him and put my head in my hand. He called out to Ethan who turned and started heading towards the car, stopping when he reached the window on Aiden’s side.
I met eyes with him and looked away, wishing he would go away.
Ethan sparked up a conversation about basketball. Since the winter sports season had started already, they would be on the same team. I couldn’t blame Aiden for talking to Ethan. He was basically oblivious to what has been happening. There was no way he would know what Ethan has been doing.
“I’ll see you on Monday. Get ready for that game.” He paused. “Callan.”
I finally looked at him, a glower on my face. “What?”
“Nothing.” A half-smirk was threatening to appear on his face. “I thought you were grounded.”
Aiden was looking between us now.
I didn’t say anything to him while he noticably pushed down a smirk. I missed it more when all he did was glare at me.
Ethan turned back towards Aiden. “Later.”
He left and headed back towards his door.
“I guess I should go too.” I said, reaching for the door.
Aiden grabbed my arm. “What was that all about?” He had a curious look on his face.
“Nothing.”
He narrowed his eyes. “He was the one you slept with while I was gone.” Aiden guessed correctly, but I wasn’t about to tell him that his presumption was true. He sounded a little bit surprised as well.
“No.”
“Then what was that look he gave you.”
“I didn’t see any kind of look.”
Aiden frowned. “You’re lying to me. You know, I’m not an idiot and I’ve heard a bit of the rumors about you two meeting up. I didn’t think they were true because he was the one guy you had absolutely no interest in.”
“He took an interest in me.”
“And you fucked him.” A little bit of animosity was seeping into his tone.
“Why are you starting to sound upset?” I asked him.
“I’m not.”
“Are you sure the idea of me sleeping with him doesn’t upset you?” The thought of him being jealous made me a little bit happy.
He looked away from me. “You can be with whoever you want.”
“I know that.”
“What bothers me is that you’re obviously angry with him for something so what is it?”
He was back on this again. “Look Aiden, I don’t need your help with my problems.”
“Why do I get the feeling that there’s a lot more going on?”
“I have to go and you need to get out of here.”
“Callan.” There was worry in his voice now and I appreciated his concern, but I didn’t want to involve him.
I sighed and turned around. “Don’t worry about me, okay?” After one last quick kiss, I muttered a goodbye and left.
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A/N: Thanks for reading!!! I'm not happy about this chapter, but I threw it up here anyway. Also thanks to all of you who vote and comment and fan. Love you guys!